How do I edit…as a not super systematic pantser?

By Cassandra O'Leary

How do I edit as a panster? I'm glad you asked, dear readers. I'm currently in the final throes of editing a single title romantic comedy manuscript (currently 96,000 words long) and it's been a saga. For starters, I began writing this novel in 2015, then left it halfway done for at least a year before finishing the first, messy draft. Then I sat on it again for about another two years! Note, I do not recommend this method...I only remembered the bare bones of the plot by the time I got back to it.

But a lot happened in the intervening time. I got my first book published with HarperCollins UK (not my first manuscript though, that's also put away and will never see the light of day), I wrote some shorts and novellas and nearly an entirely different book. So I guess I've learned a little since then.

From the first draft to something book-like

Coming back to the draft, I was pleasantly surprised it didn’t completely suck. There were some interesting characters (hello, I remember you!), funny dialogue and a setting that I think it a bit different. Then I struck the problems, and oh boy, they were many. Missing scenes and chapters out of sequence were the main issues, and honestly they’re a hallmark of my writing because I’m a real panster (I write by the seat of my pants, without an outline). I often open up brand new documents to write single scenes when I feel the urge, or when I get stuck. Then, I have to work out where to slot-in the new content, and smooth out the rough edges so it matches the preceeding and succeeding scenes.

I’ve re-jigged the structure of this manuscript quite a lot, so it’s book-shaped, has chapters that are roughly the same length, alternating point of view scenes, and hopefully with chapter endings that have a hook or at least an interesting last line.

Continuity—or where did that character go?

So, continuity is the first thing I look for. My heroine was apparently getting test results from the doctor before she even made an appointment! Also, I look at how my characters’ dialogue has changed—I notice if I’ve added in more slang or different speech patterns as I go along. This is me as a writer, getting to know a character’s voice. Then there is the problem with disappearing secondary characters. I’m just thinking of writing a new scene with my hero and his best friend, because poor Sam the mechanic was only in one scene, and has apparently evaporated.

Nuts and bolts

Next comes nuts and bolts stuff like fixing spelling errors, missing words, excessive use of some words (that, but, just, only—these are my worst offenders as repetitive words) and short sentences versus longer. I tend to write sentence fragments and direct thoughts as a character would speak them. This is a stylistic choice and not an error as such, but it can become annoying if the same type of sentence is repeated e.g. Oh. My. God. I have a character that would say this, but we don’t want it ten times on the same page! I’ll do another check for all of these things when I get to the final draft.

A special note on sexy scenes

I like the sexy times on the page…too much maybe. My sex scenes tend to be overly long in a first draft, as I get them out in a big, long, hard, marathon session (I love double entendres, LOL). This means, analysing a sexy scene like I would any other scene—where is the pace too slow, where is it all action, no emotion, or where is it out of character or lopsided, from only one character’s point of view (when writing in both main character’s POV).

If it’s all he-did-this-to-her, then he-did-this, it’s a little boring. And because I write romantic comedy, I like to add a little humour in the bedroom (or car, or office or whatever) when the characters get together. Maybe the heroine blurts out something completely inappropriate at a vital moment… This is where I also examine dialogue to see if it’s doing its job in the scene.

Hard copy for a close-up look

Once I have a second draft that mostly hangs together, it’s time for me to print out the manuscript in its entirety and mark-up edits on the printed page. Time for red pens and highlighters! This helps me see outstanding issues with repetition, the balance of dialogue versus narration on the page, plus I tend to notice stand-out expressions in print.

I recently attended a writing workshop with the fabulous author, Stefanie London, and she reminded me about something I’d learned a couple of years ago. Each author has their own literary techniques that they can amplify in editing e.g. alliteration. I LOVE ALLITERATION! Sexy, sensational scenes start slow…you see what I did there. The repeated ‘s’ sound gives a poetic sound to the line. I naturally write some lines like this, but it’s worth spotting and improving these patterns in edits.
Once I’ve marked up all of these handwritten notes, I edit the main document on my laptop again. We’re nearly there!

Finally, the read through

A great idea I picked up from a friend, is to send your completed manuscript to your e-reader or tablet, and read it like a published ebook. Don’t edit on screen, but keep a notepad handy to write down any issues you notice as you read. Hopefully by this stage it’s only minor typos that slip through, a quick fix rather than a major re-work.

The End! Except, now it might be time to write a query letter or synopsis…urgh.

About Cassandra O’Leary

Cassandra O'Leary is a romance and women's fiction author, communications specialist, avid reader, film and TV fangirl and admirer of pretty, shiny things.

In 2015, Cassandra won the We Heart New Talent contest run by Avon Books/HarperCollins UK. Her debut novel, Girl on a Plane, was published in July 2016 and in translation in the Czech Republic as “Letuska”. Cassandra was also a 2015 finalist in the Lone Star writing contest, Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America, and a 2014 finalist in the First Kiss contest, Romance Writers of Australia. In addition to her traditionally published work, Cassandra has indie published novellas including Heart Note: A Christmas romcom novella, and short stories.

Cassandra is a mother of two gorgeous, high-energy mini ninjas and wife to a spunky superhero. Living in Melbourne, Australia, she's also travelled the world. If you want to send her to Italy or Spain on any food or wine tasting 'research' trips, that would be splendiferous.
Read more at cassandraolearyauthor.com

What is Your Writing Process?

By Sarah Raplee and Judith Ashley

One of the first things writers should figure out is the writing process that works best for them.

We aren’t saying don’t take workshops or read books on what works for others, only that it is important to assess whether what works for that author works for you.

An example: Judith attended Cherry Adair’s plotting workshop at the first Emerald City Writer’s Conference she ever attended. Cherry has a fantastic plotting process involving note cards, color-coordinated by character, etc. She pins these cards up on a wall in her office starting with Chapter One. In this way, she can visually see the story progress. Where her characters are in each scene, setting, etc? Cherry is a best-selling author and this process works for her – and it works for many other writers.

However, Judith’s office has two walls of windows and two walls with doors. She doesn’t have a wall to lay out her plot in the same way. In fact, Judith isn’t a plotter. She isn’t even someone who edits what she wrote the day before at the beginning of her next writing session although she did try that early on. (It took her six years to write the first book in her The Sacred Women’s Circle series because it took her that long to figure out what her writing process was!) 

Judith is what we call an ‘organic’ writer. She has a beginning and an end in mind and maybe a couple of scenes along the way when she starts out. The story just seems to flow from beginning to end. If she comes to a place where something needs research or doesn’t flow, she highlights the place, makes a note to herself on the manuscript and keeps going. Instead of six years to finish a first draft, it takes her no more than six weeks.

Sarah writes her First Draft in Four Act structure, a storytelling technique that uses specific turning points to track the story line and character arc. A writer using this approach will be more focused in her plotting than an organic writer.

It wasn’t until she was halfway through her second book that Sarah finally realized she has such a strong Internal Editor that she can’t edit AT ALL until she has written the crappy First Draft straight through. Otherwise she’ll never finish the book! Like Judith, Sarah makes notes to herself when she needs to do research, needs to add description or emotion or needs to rework something for no reason she can put her finger on later. These notes keep her Internal Editor leashed.

Part of Sarah’s writing process is that she can write anywhere. She wrote the first draft of her first novel in longhand in a hospital cafeteria while waiting for her husband to pick her up after work. Whether she is at home, in a coffee shop or motel room, or on an airplane, if Sarah has her laptop or paper and pen, the stories keep on coming!

There are as many processes as there are writers. Processes evolve as you try different things and discover what works for you. However, before you publish, you need to have enough self-knowledge to make a reasonable guess as to how long it takes you to write a book—because readers, agents and editors need to know when the next story will be available. 

Trust us, you don't want to disappoint them!

JUDITH ASHLEY

Judith Ashley is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul. Hunter, the fifth book in the series, will be published in August, 2015.

You can learn more about her books at http://judithashleyromance.com.

Judith blogs about relationships at http://judithashley.blogspot every Monday and fills the first Friday of the month spot at http://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com

SARAH MCDERMED

Sarah Raplee is the author of half a dozen short stories and the soon-to-be-released paranormal romance Blindsight.

Learn more about Sarah at http://www.sarahraplee.com/ .

Sarah blogs the fourth Tuesday of the month at http://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/ .

Train of Thought—Unintended Consequences

This month’s blog theme—Trains, Planes & Automobiles—provides me an opportunity to share a fond childhood memory.

I grew up in Keokuk, in the southeast corner of Iowa. My aunt & uncle lived 400 miles away in Spirit Lake in Iowa’s northwest corner. Given that Iowa had no diagonal roads in the late 1950s—it still has dang few—it took a LONG time to tack across Iowa by car. With Mom at the wheel, it took even longer, since we drove at posted back road speeds, stopped to visit sites like the Little Brown Church in the Vale, paused to chow down on meatloaf sandwiches, and visited, oh, a dozen filling station restrooms since Mom, my sister and I seemed to keep different bathroom schedule.

All of this is to explain why Mom decided to put her ten-year-old daughter (me) on a train to Spirit Lake when I begged to travel a week ahead of the rest of the family so I could attend Camp Foster, a really cool YMCA camp with canoeing, archery, and all kinds of fun stuff.

The travel plan sounded straight forward. Mom would drive me the first 100 miles to put me aboard a passenger train for the remaining 300 miles. Then my aunt and uncle would collect me. I didn’t have to change trains, and the trip was slated to take maybe six hours. The conductor assured Mom he’d take care of me.

Turns out I was the sole passenger in the only passenger car. All other cars were filled with passengers who mooed. So the passenger car got bumped at our first stop, and I got to ride in the caboose. Fortunately, I knew how to play poker, the conductor’s game of choice.

About three hours in as we approached the engineer’s home town, we encountered some sort of mechanical problem. The engineer took me to his home, where I played with his red-haired daughter Zelda—I can still picture her. The engineer collected me hours later when whatever problem existed was fixed. And I went back to playing poker in the caboose.

Of course, I was oblivious to the fact that my mom, aunt and uncle were frantic that I was hours late. My aunt finally reached someone who told her that one little girl and several hundred head of cattle were headed her way—just a little late. I had a blast. The trip was almost as much fun as Camp Foster.

Maybe these kinds of experiences are why I remain a “seat of the pants” author, who never outlines a novel before she starts writing. I like the freedom to veer off in different directions as new plot opportunities arise. It keeps the writing fun.

So do you go with the flow when the unexpected happens? Does your willingness to improvise/adjust have an impact on how you write?